Background:

Educator Certification. The Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) is a 12-member board that adopts rules and creates policies for the preparation and certification of educators. The PESB approves programs and courses leading to educator certification at the state public and private colleges and universities and approves nontraditional educator preparation programs. The PESB also establishes policies related to educator preparation program entrance and graduation requirements. However, it is the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) that has the power to issue and revoke or suspend educator certificates.

Recruiting Washington Teachers Program. The Recruiting Washington Teachers program was established by the Legislature in 2007 to recruit and provide training and support for high school students to enter the teaching profession. The program is administered by the PESB. The program consists of the following components:

targeted recruitment of diverse students in grades nine through 12 that focuses on encouraging students to consider and explore becoming future teachers in mathematics, science, bilingual education, special education, and English as a second language;
a curriculum that provides future teachers with opportunities to observe classroom instruction, includes preteaching internships with a focus on shortage areas, and covers certain topics;
academic and community support services for students to help them overcome possible barriers to becoming future teachers, such as supplemental tutoring; advising on college readiness, applications, and financial aid processes; and mentoring; and
future teacher camps held on college campuses where students can attend workshops and interact with college faculty and current teachers.

Financial Aid Programs. The Washington Student Achievement Council administers the majority of the state's student financial aid programs, including the following programs, which may be available to future educators.

State Need Grant. The State Need Grant (SNG) program provides need-based financial aid to income-eligible undergraduate students at eligible public and private institutions of higher education. Eligible students have a household income that is less than 70 percent of the state's median household income. The SNG award values are based on the tuition and fee rates at Washington's public institutions of higher education and are prorated by income category and part-time enrollment.
College Bound Scholarship. The College Bound Scholarship program provides guaranteed four-year tuition to students from low-income families who enroll in middle school, and who meet certain grade and criminal record requirements, among other things. Scholarships are limited to four full-time years' worth of awards, which are calculated as the difference between public institution tuition and required fees, minus the value of any state-funded grant, scholarship, or waiver assistance the student receives, plus $500 for books and materials.
Conditional Scholarship Programs. A conditional scholarship is a loan that is forgiven in whole or in part in exchange for qualified service as a certified teacher employed in a Washington public school. The conditional scholarship programs are designed to help school districts recruit teachers, particularly in shortage areas. Under most conditional scholarship programs, the state forgives one year of loan obligation for every two years a loan recipient teaches in a Washington public school. Some programs forgive one year of loan obligation for every year a recipient teaches in a shortage area. There are programs available for individuals in traditional and alternative route teacher preparation programs, and for teachers pursing an endorsement in a subject or geographic shortage area.

Summary of Bill:

Biennial Educator Initiative. Beginning in the 2017-2019 biennium, the OSPI must administer the Bilingual Educator Initiative, which is a long-term program to recruit, prepare, and mentor bilingual high school students to become future bilingual teachers and counselors.

Pilot projects must be implemented in two school districts on each side of the crest of the Cascade mountains, where immigrant students are shown to be rapidly increasing. Districts selected by the OSPI must partner with at least one two-year and one four-year college in planning and implementing the program. The OSPI must provide oversight. Participating school districts must implement programs, including:

an outreach plan that exposes the program to middle school students and recruits them to enroll in the program when they begin their ninth grade of high school;
activities in ninth and tenth grades that help build student agency, such as self-confidence and awareness, while helping students to develop academic mind-sets needed for high school and college success, the value and benefits of teaching and counseling as careers, and introduction to leadership, civic engagement, and community service; and
credit-bearing curricula in grades 11 and 12 that include mentoring, shadowing, best practices in teaching in a multicultural world, efficacy and practice of dual language instruction, social and emotional learning, enhanced leadership, civic engagement, and community service activities.

There must be a pipeline to college using two-year and four-year college faculty and consisting of continuation services for program participants, such as advising, tutoring, mentoring, financial assistance, and leadership. High school and college teachers and counselors must be recruited and compensated to serve as mentors and trainers for participating students.

In 2017, funds must be appropriated for the purposes described above.

Conditional Loans. After obtaining a high school diploma, students qualify to receive conditional loans to cover the full cost of college tuition, fees, and books. To qualify for funds, students must meet program requirements as developed by their local implementation team, which consists of staff from their school district and the partnering two-year and four-year college faculty.

In order to avoid loan repayment, students must:

earn their baccalaureate degree and certification needed to serve as a teacher or professional guidance counselor; and
teach or serve as a counselor in their educational service district region for at least five years.

Students who do not meet these repayment terms must repay all or part of the financial aid they receive for college unless students are recipients of funding provided through programs such as the SNG program or the college bound scholarship program.